I got the idea and the motivation to start doing Tackling The TBR from All The Book Blog Names Are Taken.
It has helped me to keep track of my reading shelf as far as current
events and I also started doing a post for Books From The Backlog,
from Carole’s Random Life in Books,
to tidy up my shelves. I feel better about my out of control TBR and
have even knocked off a couple of those old ones that had been hanging
around for years. COME ON….JOIN IN.
Previous Total: 2482
Currently Reading
Most of my currently reading books are review books.
Books Read
Books Added
Books DNF-ed: 0
Books Deleted: 0
Duplicates Removed: 1
New TBR Total: 2491
Some books were added for giveaways and if I don’t win them, they will be deleted.
**images are linked to Amazon (I am an affiliate)**
Hey you. I am always happy to share what’s been going on here at fundinmental, but I am sitting here watching College Game Day (as the talking heads are coming to us from their Covid bubble), knowing it is Labor Day weekend and the tourists are heading my way, thinking WTF! Has everyone lost their freaking minds?
I have a passion for football, college and pro alike. I would spend every Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday glued to my TV when games were being played. Every Saturday started out with College Game Day. Though I will miss watching, I think they will end up canceling the sports season until 2021, and I feel it never should have been attempted to begin with.
And the protests about social injustice….I don’t even have any words to tell you how disgusted I am. All our country’s flaws are being revealed for everyone to see, and that is a good thing. Just like an apocalypse, all the good and bad come out, and for those who are standing up, I applaud you and thank you.
I am sure, here in Florida, the beaches will be packed and…I don’t even know what to say any more. I remember SARS and Ebola and they never got to be this bad. What was done different? Leadership!!!
PLEASE everyone in the US! Make sure you are registered to vote…and vote in every election, from local to national, and let your voice be heard.
Isolation is getting to me. Even though I am retired and not a lot in my life has changed for me personally, I still feel…lost. I have tears in my eyes as I type this. If I have offended anyone, that was not my intent. I just feel by staying silent, I am part of the problem.
All that being said, I hope you are safe and having the best week possible.
LAST WEEK ON fundinmental
Also, jump on over to Tackling The TBR and see what’s happening on my reading shelf.
A DETECTIVE AGENCY WITH HEART. AND A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
Super sleuth, Lee Alvarez, finds a dead
man wearing a tuxedo in a friend’s bathtub during a soiree for San
Francisco’s VIPs. And not just any friend, but an internationally
acclaimed actress who recently came to live in San Francisco. And not
just any bathtub, but a bathtub residing inside one of Alamo Square’s
famed Painted Ladies, recently bought by said actress.
The police believe it’s the actress
friend who done the man in. After all, it’s her house and her tub. And
another man died under suspicious circumstances around her recently.
Both romantic encounters, doncha know. The actress must be guilty.
Or is she?
For ace detective Lee Alvarez, the
timing couldn’t be worse. She is supposed to go off in celebration of
her 6-month wedding anniversary with her hunky hubby. Paris is calling!
Or is it?
Her long-time friend, plus her mother –
She Who Must Be Obeyed – thinks she should stick around and find out who
the real killer is. So Lee, family, handsome hubby, and Tugger, the
cat, are on the job. But Lee’s nose is itching. Which means not one of
the suspects is telling the truth.
Or not all of it. Lee soon uncovers
threatening letters, sullen playwrights, dead bodies, and a criminal web
of jewel thieves, all treading the boards of her friend’s latest
musical. This is showbiz?
Author Haven pulls out all the stops in a
cozy fan’s delight about a charming, and unconventional Palo Alto
detective family who get their man or woman, as the case may be. Book
Seven follows its tradition of the Bay Area’s favorite PI, who rolls
over with all four paw in the air when it comes to her darn near perfect
mother. But with the help of her computer geek brother and handsome
hubby, Lee works to solve the case in time to celebrate her own 6-month
wedding anniversary.
About Heather Haven
Heather moved to the Bay Area and
studied creative writing at Stanford University. Previously, several of
her comedy acts and plays were performed in NYC. Her novels include the
humorous Silicon Valley-based Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries,
Manhattan-based Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, Love Can Be Murder
Novellas, Snow Lake Romantic Suspense Series and standalone mystery
noir, Murder under the Big Top, based upon her mother’s stint as a performer with Ringling Brothers’ Circus. There is also her anthology, Corliss and Other Award-Winning Stories. Her favorite protagonist is in Corliss, one of the featured short stories, but don’t tell anyone!
From New York Times Bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes BRUTUS, a Paranormal Romantic Comedy that will surely cause evil vampires to kidnap the author.
MY REVIEW
As soon as I saw the warning: hot immortal warrior, invisible unicorn, unruly deities, Mayan priests, ghosts…and having read Colel, the previous book in the series…I had to have this. Each book can stand alone, but if you are anything like me, once you read one book of a series that you love, you want them all.
We have lots of laughs, fun, some danger and hot sex. What more can you want in a paranormal, fantasy romance.
I love how Brutus started out. Brutus is tied to a tree and after the 9th Amazonian warrior demanded he put up, he said, “Hurry. Get it over with then.” He is a demigod and has an unlimited potential to get it up. 🙂 I love a god that knits. And, he has a dog he knits for. LOL
He thought he could escape at any time, but he needed their help.
Zac has been tricked into mating Minky, the invisible unicorn, and is paying a hefty price for it, losing his love, Tula, his true mate. How will he be able to get rid of the pesky, vindictive unicorn and get his human back by his side?
Plague, zoom meetings, all the supernatural and paranormal characters, lots of laughs amidst the danger, makes Brutus an exciting, nonstop adventure into the world of the Immortal Matchmakers series.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Brutus by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff.
4 Stars
SYNOPSIS
Can the World’s Toughest Immortal Warrior Win the Heart of the World’s Toughest Immortal Woman?
Brutus is not your average immortal warrior. He leads the gods’ army, he’s tough as nails, and his mind is so powerful, he no longer speaks to communicate with his men. Some call him telepathic; he just calls it being a badass.
But despite the many bloody battles and hard-won victories, this is one mission he’s not so sure about. There is a plague sweeping the immortal world. Gods, vampires, incubi—no one is safe, except for those with mates, and sadly, there just aren’t enough women to go around.
To keep the gods’ army intact, ready to protect the human world, Brutus must convince a group of ancient female warriors, located deep in the Amazon jungle, to return home with him, and…well…go on dates with his men.
But when the toughest, meanest, man-hating, sexiest woman of the group catches his eye, all he can think about is conquering her heart.
WARNING: This book
contains a smokin’ hot immortal warrior looking for his forever love, a randy
invisible unicorn, and bad, bad, such bad language. Okay, and some
sex. Fine, yes! Lots of sex! And a kitten, a bit of violence, a man who loves
knitting, mannibalism, unruly deities, Mayan priests who babysit
animals, a naked goddess who wears a bee bikini, leather pants (for men), a
very randy ghost who’s desperate for her HEA, anecdotes about evil mermen, a
BIG plot twist even the author didn’t see coming, and a ton of romancy kind of
stuff.
MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF is a New York Times bestselling author who’s sold over one million books around the world. Although she obtained her MBA and worked for more than fifteen years in the corporate world, she believes that it’s never too late to come out of the romance closet and follow your dreams.
Mimi lives with her Latin lover hubby, two
pirates-in-training (their boys), and their three spunky dragons (really, just
very tiny dogs with big attitudes) Snowy, Mini, and Mack, in the
vampire-unfriendly state of Arizona.
She hopes to make you laugh when you need it most and
continues to pray daily that leather pants will make a big comeback for men.
Sign up for Mimi’s mailing list for giveaways and new
release news!
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
June Rise and Tim Scott believe they’ve discovered a new cause for global warming. But when they travel to Mexico to confirm their theories, events take a demented turn – and fast. Tim vanishes, and soon June is on the run, framed for murder and the target of a deadly conspiracy. With her life on the line and catastrophic events looming, she is forced to take drastic measures in an attempt to reveal the discovery to the world. But will she succeed? Or will the discovery remain hidden forever – claiming June as a victim in the process?
From Seattle to Mexico, D.C. to Georgia, D.S. Land’s debut thriller is a fast-paced, action-packed ride that challenges perceptions of global warming and explores the never-ending depths of greed.
Midnight Blue Over Mexico is D S Land’s first and only novel, so I am really curious now. Mexico…a discovery…global warming…why haven’t I read this? I added this to my reading shelf on 10.9.12, but actually got it through Amazon on 8.8.12. I love books that deal with real life issues that I am concerned about and global warming is a big one. I love the water, whether it’s pools, oceans, rivers, creeks, ponds, or the birdbath in my backyard, so anything that affects that concerns me. I’m glad I am doing this meme, because I am finding books that I really want to read and forgot about.
Alexa’s A Spy and Other Things To Be Ticked Off About: Humorous essays on the Hassles of our Time. When I saw this, I signed up for a tour and was supposed to review it, but I never got a copy and it slipped my mind to check on it until it was too late. I did finally find the copy the author had sent and I am so happy. It looks wonderful on my shelf.
I am in the mood for some fun and laughter, so I jumped on the chance to read Alexa’s A Spy by Dorothy Rosby, and I was not disappointed. Right away I felt an affinity towards her. I think we can be friends. She had me nodding my head, saying, “Yup. Yup. Been There Done That.” I smiled and laughed my way through some of my biggest pet peeves in this humorously written, fun, entertaining, collection of easy to read essays.
Maybe next time, I’ll think twice about flipping that driver off, exccept I already do. LOL
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Alexa’s A Spy by Dorothy Rosby.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Alexa’s a Spy and Other Things to Be Ticked off About, Humorous Essays on the Hassles of Our Time is part comical call to arms and part tongue-in-cheek tirade. It’s a good-natured rant about what brings us down during the day and keeps us up through the night, a collection of humorous essays that laugh at the nuisances of modern life: spammers and scammers, clutter and litter, bad manners and uncivil discourse. Too much stuff, too much noise, too much technology. Not enough patience, not enough kindness, not enough…chocolate?
ABOUT DOROTHY ROSBY
Dorothy Rosby is a syndicated humor columnist and author of two other books of humorous essays “I Used to Think I Was Not That Bad and Then I Got to Know Me Better” and “I Didn’t Know You Could Make Birthday Cake from Scratch, Parenting Blunders from Cradle to Empty Nest.” She’s working on her fourth and hoping to give it a shorter title—something like “Wow” or “Best Seller.” She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 20 miles from Mount Rushmore, something she’s very proud of even though she’s not on it. Yet.
Butterfly Broken (Metamorphosis #3) by Rebecca L. Carpenter
Genre: YA Sci-fi
Release Date: September 1st 2020 Lakewater Press
Summary:
HER SECRET. HIS BETRAYAL. THEIR REDEMPTION.
“Hasn’t nature had enough–her thirst for blood satisfied?”
Bethany Keatley hoped her life would finally be normal, but on returning home to Springs, Georgia and the love of her her life, Jeremiah Wright, she discovers she’s to blame for for his hideous burns. Peace will never be hers. Yet, when she transfers her blood into Jeremiah’s, his mangled hand heals.
Bethany’s his cure but she’s not the only one who knows.
Abducted and locked away by powerful, desperate people hired to destroy her supernatural blood, Bethany and Jeremiah undergo unethical experiments. It’s only after the sheer potential of their mixed blood is revealed that their enemies turn on each other and new alliances are formed.
Who can be trusted when everyone has something to gain?
Bethany and Jeremiah unite to fight for their lives against real-life villains and an unquenchable power growing within Bethany, but time is running out, and Bethany can’t take any more loss.
With Jeremiah’s life on the line, a new monster will be unleashed.
In the third and final book of the breathtaking and award-winning Metamorphosis Series, Rebecca Carpenter delivers a fast-paced, spine-chilling experience that you’ll find impossible to put down.
Book One:
Butterfly Bones (Metamorphosis #1) Release Date: November 2016
Summary:
Bethany should be dead, just like the doctors predicted.
But along came the butterflies, altering the order of nature.
And now nature is hell bent on revenge.
Because when fate’s path is disrupted, it’s only a matter of time before balance must be restored.
Book Two:
Butterfly Blood (Metamorphosis #2) Release Date: August 2018
Summary:
A sixteen-year-old girl who cheated death continues her fight for survival as she goes up against real-life monsters, desperate for her unique blood, while risking everything to reunite with the love of her life, who is battling his own soul-sucking demons.
About the Author Rebecca Carpenter is a native of western Colorado. She is married with two grown children and has been blessed with four amazing grandchildren. She owns and directs a large childcare center where she shares her love for books. In her spare time, she freelances as a copy editor, helping others attain their writing dreams. She finds solace and clarity while spending time with her husband exploring the beautiful mountains of Colorado.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review The Darkest Evening by Anne Cleeves. Everything about the book spoke to me….starting with that gorgeous cover.
Don’t ya just love a book that starts out: On the first snowy night of winter….
Vera left work, regardless of the snow coming down, thinking it would be okay. After all, she’s a cop. What can happen? An abandoned car. Except for the child left alone in the backseat. Okay, I am rubbing my hands together, ready to get down to business.
I love complicated family dynamics and Vera’s family is definitely that. People’s lives will be changed and the change is not all bad. I feel Holly stole the show and I want you to meet her for yourself to see why.
The action was not slow, but methodical, like a police procedural. The pacing, danger and suspense picked up near the end and with so many suspects, I was unable to figure it out until Vera filled me in.
For some reason, British thrillers don’t usually quite get there for me. I don’t know if it is a stiffness that comes through in the writing or if it’s me, myself, and I. That doesn’t stop me from reading and enjoying them, and this is not my first Ann Cleeve novel, so that proves my point.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Darkest Evening by Anne Cleeves.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the stunning new Vera Stanhope novel, The Darkest Evening. Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers.–Louise Penny
As
a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high
expectations for Cleeves’ latest. . . . A stunning debut for Cleeves’
latest crimefighter.–David Baldacci on The Long Call
On
the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets
off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a
turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off
the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to
help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has
gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in
the back seat.
Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives
at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the
wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also
where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full
swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the
revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.
As the blizzard traps
the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn
begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her
investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.
ABOUT ANN CLEEVES
Ann is the author of the books behind ITV’s VERA, now in it’s third series, and the BBC’s SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann’s DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann’s Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands…
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs – child care officer, women’s refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard – before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.
While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person’s not heavily into birds – and Ann isn’t – there’s not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.
In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.
For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival’s first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries. Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony
Ann’s short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award – once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.
In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA’s Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world’s largest award for crime fiction.
Ann’s success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London’s Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: “I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock – but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I’d lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn’t have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!”
The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O’Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).
Ann’s books have been translated into sixteen languages. She’s a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200
Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let’s share some songs we’ve been enjoying lately! If you would like to play, and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below HERE
Bad Day by Daniel Powter hit #1 on the Billboard charts in 2006.
